The push to legalize Missouri sports betting is generating plenty of attention. It is also inciting vast amounts of spending.
Amendment 2, the bill sponsored by Winning for Missouri Education as well as top online sportsbooks in the United States, is set to appear on the November electoral ballot. At that time, voters in The Show-Me State will for the first time have the opportunity to decide the fate of sports betting.
While this measure is like many others before it, the method by which it has arrived here is anything but normal. That accounts for much of the attention it receives—not just inside the state, but from around the rest of the country.
However, now that Amendment 2’s place on the ballot is secured, the stakes are beginning to rise. Supporters are naturally throwing their weight behind it with financial contributions to its campaign. Online sportsbooks such as FanDuel and DraftKings are already sponsors of the bill. In fact, they helped bankroll the petition process that landed Amendment 2 on the ballot. Winning for Missouri Education is also made up of pro sports franchises in Missouri. You know those organizations have deep pockets. Especially when it comes to the attempt to legalize sports betting throughout Missouri.
Yet, it is not just supporters who are throwing money at Amendment 2. Opponents of this initiative are funding counter-campaigns.
To that end, the amount of cash getting thrown around is exponentially increasing. In the end, it may also wind up breaking records.
How Much Money will be Spent on Campaigns for AND Against the Latest Missouri Sports Betting Bill?
While there is no exact answer to this question, a reasonable one can be provided in three words: a whole lot. Consider the following excerpt from Rudi Keller of the Missouri Independent:
“A good mark might be $60 million. Online bookies poured $32 million so far into the Amendment 2 campaign to legalize sports betting, and a casino company grumpy about the deal countered with $14 million to defeat it. The campaign for Amendment 5, to authorize a new casino at the Lake of the Ozarks, adds $9.4 million—bringing the total to more than $55 million. Winning for Missouri Education, the Amendment 2 campaign funded by DraftKings and FanDuel, has already set a record for the most money donated to a ballot measure campaign. The previous record was $31 million raised by supporters of a 2006 proposal to protect stem cell research.”
This is, like we said, a whole lot of money. And a $60 million projection might be too conservative.
Sure, we are less than one month away from the November 5 elections. But campaign spending can ratchet up down the stretch, particularly when you are talking about parties attempting to discredit initiatives. Frankly, it would not be surprising to see spending on the Missouri sports betting bill eclipse $65 million and flirt with a $70 million benchmark.
Caesars is Emerging as the Biggest Opponent to Amendment 2
Speaking of counter-campaigning: Caesars Entertainment has quickly emerged as the most committed opponent to the legalization of sports betting in Missouri. To be sure, they are not strictly opposed to the concept of sports betting itself. That much is obvious. Caesars has sportsbooks all over the country and operates one of the more popular online sports betting sites in the USA as well.
As it turns out, this is sort of the point. Caesars apparently thinks that online sportsbooks operating outside Missouri stand to benefit the most from Amendment 2. So, they are spending to undermine it. As Keller writes:
“Caesars Entertainment is the casino company that dislikes the proposal enough to spend big against it. Caesars employs 2,000 people in Missouri and has a branded online sports betting platform that competes with FanDuel and DraftKings. The proposal will mainly benefit the online platforms that have no significant presence in the state, said Brooke Foster, spokeswoman for Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment. ‘Obviously they’re not opposed to sports betting,” she said of Caesars’ opposition to Amendment 2. ‘If it were written in a way that would actually benefit Missouri and Missourians in a more substantial way, it would be different.’”
Foster’s comments are biting. But they have at least some merit.
The Lucrative Division Over Missouri Sports Betting is Not Surprising
Winning for Missouri Education has advertisements claiming that sports betting will generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Some of that, in turn, will be used to improve the education system, including the increase of teacher salaries. Caesars’ counter-campaign takes issue with these sentiments. “Teachers were told the lottery would raise a lot of money for schools, but that didn’t happen,” one advertisement against Amendment 2 says. “[This is] the lottery 2.0.)”
These ads, of course, are referring to potential write-offs and “carve-outs.” Opponents of Amendment 2 the revenue will end up negligibly impacting the educational system. And, once more, they may have a point—at least for the first couple of years. Many states offer credits and steep write-offs for sportsbooks during the first year or two of operation. After that, though, these promotional loopholes are typically closed or at least tightened. Some states have even entertained eliminating write-offs for sportsbook bonuses altogether.
Regardless, this division over the Missouri sports betting issue is hardly surprising. Remember, the failed push to legalize California online sports betting back in 2022 saw nine-figures’ worth of money invested into campaigning. Missouri, of course, is a much smaller market. But it is not exactly a tiny one.
What’s more, the issue itself is inherently divisive. Sports betting in general invites all sorts of opposing views. And the Missouri sports betting initiative is especially controversial. That's mostly because it wasn’t approved by the state’s legislative chambers.
Will these circumstances impact what happens at the polls on November 5? We'll have to wait and see.
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